This Way Out

For a quarter of a century, the unfettered voices of LGBT people have been broadcast around the world on "This Way Out: The International LGBT Radio Magazine." It's distributed weekly to over 200 local community and online radio stations around the world, can be heard via podcast and direct satellite (World Radio Network), and is available on CD by subscription.
For our whole story -- including how you can contribute -- please visit our website!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Bottom of the 9th/Last Pitch ...

We're down to the wire! The volunteers who bring you This Way Out each and every week need your help to at least match the amount our listener-sponsors donated during last year's holiday season. We need to demonstrate to our longtime foundation funder that there's enough grassroots support for This Way Out to justify their renewed grant to us in 2012.

Whatever you can afford (it's also tax-deductible in the U.S.) will support a truly unique LGBT community resource.

Please don't assume that others will donate even if you don't!Postal-mail your check or money order toThis Way OutP.O. Box 38327Los Angeles, CA 90038 USAor log on to thiswayout.org to make a secure online donation via PayPal.

Thank you, and warmest wishes from the This Way Out family to you and yours for a safe, healthy, productive, prosperous and pleasure-filled 2012.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

In the late 1990s, one courageous Methodist pastor took up the cause of LGBT equality. His mission, which included a number of banned same-gender commitment ceremonies, cost him his ordination, but his ministry to the disenfranchised has continued. This week, the Reverend Jimmy Creech talks about how receiving Adam's Gift -- the title of his recently-released memoir -- changed the course of his life forever. He recounts his comprehensive study of Biblical texts and church history, which led him to the conclusion that the condemnation of LGBT people is not God's doing, but the result of a sex-negative church hierarchy. His words of wisdom inspired a gathering at Metropolitan Community Church-Los Angeles and provide a fitting holiday special!

(NewsWrap returns Jan. 9, 2012.)

To listen to the world's only syndicated weekly LGBT radio program, subscribe to our podcast at http://www.thiswayout.org ...

NewsWrap for the week ending December 17, 2011

SUMMARY

Global Assessment - The United Nations Human Rights Council releases a first-ever comprehensive report detailing human rights abuses against sexual minorities around the world, with recommendations to the UN's 193 member states on how to better protect them …

Until They Turn Blue - government leaders in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda say they'll never support decriminalizing private, consensual adult same-gender sex …

Friday, December 16, 2011

Changing the world 30 minutes at a time

Hey There:

I’ve got a story to tell you. Promise me you’ll read all the way to the end…

Not so long ago, as I was about to give up on yet another not-for-profit group that I had volunteered for, something happened that stopped me in my tracks. After years of volunteering to research, report, write, edit and raise money for non-commercial radio, I had just reached the point of burn-out. I had put in hundreds of hours producing stories and full-length programs. I had hosted our station’s ‘9-11’ coverage for eight hours. I had spent all my ‘free’ time working on any number of philanthropic ventures for a couple of years and I was just tired out. I had made a decision to resign from all my radio work, and just work at my regular job as a university professor.

The show I gave the most time to was This Way Out: the International Lesbian & Gay Radio Magazine. I was proud of my work there and had served as board chair for a number of years. We had faced crisis after crisis, but ‘the little show that could’ managed to go out over the airwaves on a budget of essentially nothing. Working on the show, we knew that the stories, news, reviews and dispatches from and to virtually the entire planet about the lives of LGBT people and the world in which they live were being heard.

But like virtually everyone who puts in long hours on philanthropic projects, I was just worn out. For the eighth or ninth or twentieth time, I vowed to write a note to the show’s founder and producer Greg Gordon and say ‘GG (My pet nick name for him), I just can’t do it anymore…’

Now remember, I love Greg and Lucia Chappelle, his comrade in arms putting the show together for close to a quarter century. I love the volunteers who worked the show and the far-flung informal network of correspondents around the world who contributed. They are my personal heroes, having done as much, if not more for the cause of LGBT rights as anyone on the planet. They continue to work on the show long past the time any reasonable person would have given up. They gather and write perhaps the single most comprehensive record of international LGBT news any place. They produce the lively, weekly half hour show that is heard on more than 200 local stations in the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand, via World Radio Networks satellite in Europe and the Asia-Pacific and Middle East/Africa, on iTunes, and on free podcasts at the This Way Out website.

I had written my resignation letter, when I saw in my email inbox a message from someone in India. The sender sounded young. I’ll call him ‘Rasheed’, because he says he can’t have his real name get out. In the email to me as board chair, he wrote about how hard it was being gay in his small village in central India, how his family would disown him if they found out about his being gay. He said he didn’t think there were any other people like him in the world. He said that he had often considered suicide, because he had no hope of meeting someone like himself. He had given up on the possibility of falling in love with another gay man. Then he heard This Way Out, and was instantly addicted. He said he had to listen on his headphones, in the dark, in his bedroom when everyone else was asleep, but finding This Way Out let him know that the world was full of passionate, accomplished and above all proud Lesbians and Gay men. He heard stories of protest and legislative triumph. He heard music by openly out and proud gay artists. He heard interviews with queer writers, and reviews of gay film festivals. He heard the latest news on protests and gay pride celebrations virtually across the planet. He heard stories of gay athletes and community organizers.

Most of all, he heard hope.

I tore up my resignation letter and told Greg the story. He laughed and said, “yeah, I know that letter.” It’s had different names over the years, and it has come from all over the planet – from Africa, Cuba, Pakistan and the Philippines; from India, Ireland, Germany and South Africa. It has come from Rasheed, Salima, Tyler and Kim. It’s come from the lonely Gay boy named Tony in Oklahoma and from Lisa in Florida who had a crush on a girl in high school. Ever so gently, I cursed ‘Rasheed’ under my breath, because there was no way I could resign from this effort that had the possibility of reaching even one – or ten, or a hundred, or ten thousand – Rasheeds and Salimas or Tylers or Kims around the world who heard that they were valued as a Lesbian or Gay man, that their life is worthwhile and that they are not alone; there are loving and powerful communities of LGBT people around the planet solving their social problems and fighting for acceptance, and their voices are respected and treasured.

I’m writing this to you now because that radio show, This Way Out, is in trouble. After nearly two and a half decades of telling the world about LGBT people, after over 1200 weekly shows, after reporting the truth around the world, This Way Out is in real danger of shutting down forever. The show is produced on a shoe string – Greg will share financial records with anyone who asks, although there isn’t much to see! Both Greg and Lucia faced life-saving surgery this past year, and the work of keeping the show going gets harder and harder. Considering how important it is to worldwide Gay communities, it would be a tragedy if This Way Out had to shut down. I’m writing you because I believe in the show, and I believe that you will want to be a part of the effort to keep it on the air.

I know requests like this have become so commonplace online that it is easy to discard; you just hit the delete button. But think what your $20 or $50 or $100 dollars would mean to Rasheed, Salima or Kim. Think of the lives of young LGBT people you will be changing. This Way Out is a treasure of our unruly, exuberant gay community. I’m begging you to take the time to think about this; to go to the This Way Out web site (www.thiswayout.org) and use PayPal to make either a one-time donation or to sign up for modest automated monthly donations -- or postal mail your contribution to This Way Out at P.O. Box 38327, Los Angeles, CA 90038 USA. FYI, all U.S. donations are tax-deductible charitable contributions.

Now more than ever, we need you to not be shy or ambivalent about this. We have a number of ways to thank you; that’s not new. You hear these pitches all the time. But how many times have you heard that your donation could potentially save a life? Think about it. Every time you hear of a Gay suicide, or a horrendous case of bullying, haven’t you wanted to take some kind of action?

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes history with her December 6th address to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on international LGBT rights.

And in NewsWrap: U.S. President Barack Obama issues a memorandum outlining American support for global LGBT rights, although extremist televangelist Pat Robertson damns the move; no waffling in Belgium over the world's first openly gay PM; Australia claims the Western world's first intersex public official; U.S. Ninth Circuit hears even more about Prop 8; Honolulu lesbian couple sues for marriage equality; rights vote looms in Anchorage; Riverdale's Kevin Keller gets hitched; and more news reported by Vash Boddie and Rick Watts (produced by Steve Pride).

To listen to the world's only syndicated weekly LGBT radio program, subscribe to our podcast at http://www.thiswayout.org ...

NewsWrap for the week ending December 10, 2011

SUMMARY

World View - A U.S. presidential directive and a U.N. speech by the Secretary of State combine for what is being called "the most affirming LGBT rights foreign policy in the nation's history" – although extremist televangelist Pat Robertson strongly disagrees (hear what he told his Christian Broadcasting Network "700 Club" viewers) …

No Waffling - Elio Di Rupo's swearing in as Prime Minister of Belgium makes him the world's first openly gay head of government …

The Both In Charge - Australia's Tony Briffa may be the Western world's first known intersex elected official as he becomes the Mayor of Hobsons Bay, a local government authority near Melbourne, Victoria …

Heard It Before? - adversaries debate the release of video recordings of the Proposition 8 trial, and Chief District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's ability to impartially rule that the California marriage-banning measure is unconstitutional, during two hours of hearings at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals …

Aloha This - a Honolulu lesbian couple sues the state of Hawai'i for marriage rights …

Fairness Thaw - equality activists in Anchorage, Alaska appear to have submitted the required number of signatures on initiative petitions to put an LGBT anti-bias measure on the April 2012 city ballot …

When Will It End? - Jacob Rogers of Ashland City, Tennessee becomes the latest reported bullied gay teen to kill himself …

Small Comfort - an unknown number of upstate New York high school classmates of bullied gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer are suspended for indeterminate periods for contributing to his suicide earlier this year …

Jury Gamble - Dharun Ravi rejects a generous plea deal and will stand trial in New Jersey for allegedly driving fellow Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi to suicide after uploading secret webcam video of Clementi having what he thought was private gay sex in his dorm room …

Comic-ment Ceremony - but Kevin Keller's Riverdale nuptials headlining the January issue of "Life With Archie" will not only be mainstream comics' first same-gender wedding, it'll be an interracial one at that ….

Monday, December 05, 2011

Writer-director Clayton Robey brings the "boys in the documentary" in preview clips from his newly-out-on-DVD chronicle of the iconic stage-to-film classic The Boys in the Band to a visit with Entertainment Correspondent Steve Pride.

The rarely-retiring U.S. Congressman Barney Frank says he's actually retiring from the House.

And in NewsWrap: Australia's Labor Party favors marriage equality with an escape clause, Queensland creates civil unions, a bill to criminalize same-gender weddings and LGBT advocacy clears Nigeria's Senate, Cameroon jails three more gay men, Spanish election results drive lesbian and gay couples to the altar, and more news reported by Sarah Sweeney and Michael LeBeau (produced by Steve Pride).

To listen to the world's only syndicated weekly LGBT radio program, subscribe to our podcast at http://www.thiswayout.org ...

NewsWrap for the week ending December 3, 2011

SUMMARY

Yes and No - Delegates to the National Conference of Australia's ruling Labor Party vote to support marriage equality, but also approve allowing a conscience vote for their MPs on any marriage equality legislation, which analysts say will doom such a bill to failure …

Paper Prejudice - the hetero-only Australian federal Marriage Act prevents the issuance of certificates required by some countries verifying that they're not already married to gay and lesbian Australians who want to wed their partners overseas, but the Labor Party's National Conference voted to support issuing Certificates of Non-Impediment to Marriage …

They "Looked Like Women" - Cameroon sentences three more men to prison for homosexuality …

Fire Sale - applications for marriage licenses by same-gender couples surge in Spain following the landslide election victory of the center-right People's Party, which has challenged in the Constitutional Court the then-Socialist government's 2005 enactment of marriage equality …

Nyet Promo Homo - Russians resent criticism by the U.S. and the U.K. of a bill in the northwestern city of St. Petersburg that would ban so-called "homosexual propaganda" …

Less Than Paradise - some activists in the Netherlands are expressing surprise over unexpectedly-high reports of homophobic abuse in a country viewed as one of the world's most LGBT-friendly, while Gay-Straight Alliances are blossoming in Dutch schools to provide support and greater acceptance for at least half of LGBT students who say they don’t feel safe enough to be "out" …

Hot Men - the mayor of the Peruvian coastal city of Huarmey voices concern that high strontium levels in the town's water supply is making men gay ….

Complete NewsWrap text and this week's podcast to be posted December 6th.